Mark Ballas was interviewed on People Now. He teases on his new Dancing With The Stars partner with these words: “She’s lovely, she’s gifted, and she’s a natural”. She’s also a friend. Check out the new teaser and more hints at this link. Any guesses? I have no idea.

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72 responses to "Mark Ballas Teases On His New Dancing With The Stars Season 25 Partner"

I know I’ve seen a lot of people that think it’s BC but I just don’t think so. I feel like some would claim it unfair if she ever did the show paired with Mark since there is already a connection there where they are married and such. I would love for her to do it at some point but maybe not paired with Mark for that reason.

For some reason I can’t seem to knock the idea that it might be Lindsey Stirling. Her tour ends Sept 2nd, she’s friends with Derek, she’s talked about wanting to do the show before and that if her schedule permitted she would want to, and Mark saying in one of the interviews how his partner finally had her schedule line up and once he found out he was free and that she was doing it that’s what decided him on coming back. I might be doing some major reaching there but it’s a partnership I would love to see. I feel like whoever it is whether its her or someone else that Mark has whoever Derek knows that’s doing it. Especially since they have both used similar words to describe the she that they are referring to. I think we are all in desperate need of some leaks and maybe we might get some since it seems like the other pros are meeting partners today (even though I really want to know Marks most of all).

Great guess. I’d love it if Lindsey did the show. What a great way to get her and her music out there as well. She’s got the moves too and would be incredible…and she’d be totally open to Mark’s theatricalness and creativity.

UGH! This is killing me. The longer it takes for us to know, the more anxious i’m getting. I really would like for it to be either BC, Paris Jackson, Eva Mendez, Carmen Electra, or Lindsey Sterling. Those are my top 5 guesses, but I also have to remember that he said that it may be a singer/songwriter.

I’m not too sure about Tara. I know they are friends but she just got married. But then again who knows, she may do it. Lindsey Stirling is a good possibility, too. She did a great video a few months back with Derek and really did a wonderful AT. I’m sure there will be a leak before the 6th.

Lindsey Sterling is an excellent guess. She’s a Capitol recording artist and that’s essentially same as Disney fam. The Zelda Switch game is huuuuge right now, and that is famously right up her alley, so I can see Mark doing that for a theme…

If it’s Lindsey I’ll scream! I’ve been a fan of her music for years & I’ve been wanting her on dwts since I watched her do Dance Showdown on youtube. She IS lovely, she IS a natural, but I don’t know if “gifted” applies to her – Pros usually use that word in reference to someone who has dance training. She incorporates elements of dance in her performances, she seems quite flexible, but I don’t think she’s ever taken dance classes. I wonder if it could be Gina? She has salsa training, but are she and Mark close?

I’m happy he’s the one now who gets to pick a gifted partner. Maks got an Olympic ice dancer to come back for S18 (which turned out to be an amazing partnership) & got a professional dancer last season.
Val will literally call Deena & Wade and ask for “a good one” bc he wants to win again (there’s an interview w/Deena that mentions that) & he gets talented partners every season.
Mark usually gets the partner w/great personality & no dance experience, but he’s such a creative choreographer that he always manages to make them look good & take them far. No “hate” towards the Chmerkovskiys tho.
I feel like the show hasn’t shown him due appreciation for all the great work he’s done. Maybe now they’ll treat him better. Last season, choreographycally, wasn’t that great.

#Joan mentioned Tara Lipinki, I think she’d be great. Height wise, perfect for Mark and another Olympian… He won his 2 mirrorballs w/2 Olympians :]

Right now, Lindsey is in S. American. She tweeted (2 days ago) she has been traveling around there, and just performed in Chile. I agree, that she would be a great pick for the show. Maybe she will get back and if she is following Mark, she may very well be his partner which would mean she would have to be ending her travels soon. She may have flown to N.Y. already. Maybe she will tweet she is back in the U.S.

KreativeKat she’s in South America for her tour until September 2nd. But after that she’s done touring for the time being. So it leaves her free to do the show. She’s been following Mark for a long time on social media, but the reason I think she may be his partner is based on things she’s said in the past in reference to dwts and things that mark used to describe his partner in some interviews released today. Namely that whoever his partner is couldn’t do it schedule wise until now and it finally fit, Lindsey has said before that if she could fit it in her schedule that she would love to do dwts. And through Derek I think mark has known her awhile which is another thing mark said. I may be totally off base but whoever they got for Mark as a partner was enough of a draw for him to come back so it would have to be someone good. And Lindsey fits that bill pretty well.

Thanks, Brittney C. I did read your first post earlier, just didn’t register until you mentioned it again. duh…
Since she is a friend of Derek (he also plays some violin (fiddle) and he said he knows one of the female celebs who is on this season’s cast. And, the fact that she’s been following Mark (though he is not responding) could be he doesn’t want to give his partner away. Sure, is getting mighty suspicious! 🙂

Sounds like Mark got an adult (instead of the kids he has had in the past) as a partner, and she is a good one. Good for him, he deserves it. Bet those were the conditions to Mark back on board with DWTS. Don’t blame him one iota. Hoping they can make it all the way to the finals.

Long-time lurker to say it likely won’t be the Olympic skaters mentioned. I’m a huge skating fan. It’s an Olympic year and none of the active skaters (like Gracie Gold) would do anything extra. They don’t have time but even if they did, the injury risk is too high.
Tara Lipinski was mentioned – maybe a way out there dark horse as she has hinted at something big coming up. However she & Johnny (Weir) have talked about DWTS on their podcast and said they couldn’t imagine doing it without the other one and preferably dancing together (which we all know could never happen). On the other hand, she’s been posting vids of her skating again which hasn’t happened for years. Also, it’s an Olympic year so they are actually quite busy doing promos and other advance work for NBC as well as covering skating through the fall.

Ashley Benson perhaps? PLL is done, she doesn’t seem to have anything else on the table right now, she’s friends with Mark. I could see that happening. She’d be ridiculously good as well, she’s a trained dancer in pretty much every genre other than ballroom.

I’d like to see Mark have a partner who is in great physical shape for the challenge, some musically/rhythm/timing and a natural (sorta like Bindi) and great personality. (did I say well known in popularity?)

I think Mark could have actress Sean Young as a partner. She lives in the NY area, she was a trained dancer in her youth and teens. She’s been taking tap dancing the last few years. She posted a pic of herself in a dance studio saying she was ‘training for a project starting in late September, details to follow’. I think it could be her.

The new Blade Runner is coming out in October. They may be going for the ‘nolstalgia’ factor. And she can actually still dance from what I’ve seen of her social media posts. She’s in good shape. She’s going to be in the new TNT series The Alienist coming up. I know it seems crazy, but how relevant were Mr T and Charo in 2017, and they were cast last season.

I hope it’s not Sean Young! It was a long time ago but James Woods got Sean Young arrested and sued her for millions of Dollars for stalking and harassment. He claimed Sean sent him and his girlfriend hate mail, pictures of corpses and put a doll with it’s head cut off on his doorstep. It got settled out of court somehow. It was waaay back in time , but yikes!

Tori Kelly is surely way too big for DWTS at the moment and I can’t imagine that Mark is friends with her, we’d have heard about it in the past if he was. Ditto for Celine Dion. I’ve not got a clue who it is to be honest but it’ll be someone good who can win no doubt about that. Mark said he was in NY because it fits his star’s schedule, Ashley Benson is in New York which may add a little weight to my guess.

I agree with PHeidi, Sean Young is a “train wreck.” She was on “Skating With The Stars” as a contestant back in 2010 when she was 50. She fell a lot and was so stiff (and tall) and her partner had to do all the work to make her look half ways good. She’s like 5’9″ It’s time for TPTB to take off the kit gloves and give Val a 57 year old train wreck.

I like the idea of BC. She surprised a lot of peeps with her turn on the dance floor with Mark for their wedding, it’s a perfect promo for their music, and since there is precedent in that Julianne competed with her boyfriend Chuck Wicks and Kym competed with her future hubby, it’s kind of cute.

Since I did so well at guessing the returning pros, I’ll throw in my guess for Mark’s partner. She’s one of my three dream partners for him and the one I’ve wished for the longest: retired figure skater Michelle Kwan. After working for the last two Presidential administrations as a Public Diplomacy Envoy, and working as an Outreach Coordinator for Hilary Clinton’s campaign, she’s between positions now. It appears she’s recently moved back to California after the breakdown of her marriage. If she’s ever going to do the show, this might be the best time, before she takes another position, especially with the show apparently scaling back to once per year. She ticks the three boxes Mark referenced: lovely, accomplished and a natural. I’ve watched her grow up since the first time I saw her skate, in 1993. I think she and Mark would make an awesome partnership.

Ashley Benson would be fun to watch. I just think she is a bit too big for the show. I can’t see any of the PLL girls on DWTS that were main main characters.

Also, I feel like Mark and Ashley would last till week 5 or 6 and would be victim to the “Mark and potentially-finals-worthy celeb who get voted off too early for lack of connection to the audience” or w/e the reason(s) has been in the past.

Kwan is a long shot yes, but Christine might not be so far off the mark. There’s some things on her instagram that could point to a stint on the show. One, she now has a home back in LA and secondly she was at an event at Disney in July and joked about registering for a dance competition with one of her political pals…. it might be as Christine B says a good time for her.

Back in 2012 her interview to ESPN:

And Kwan still hasn’t ruled out appearing on ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars.” She has been asked several times to compete. Other figure skaters such as Kristi Yamaguchi and Evan Lysacek have competed.

“I think it would be a lot of fun but I know it takes so much dedication and time,” Kwan said. “I just don’t know if I can find the time right now, moving to Los Angeles for the show. ”

Yeah it would be a huge lunchbag letdown if her, or someone of her stature is not on the show. The ones I have heard, the Property Brother, Nick Lachey? eh…not the same league as a five time world champ.

And yes I’m resigned to wishfull thinking, but I was skimming through Michelle Kwan’s instagram, and I found it coincidence? that on June 27 there’s a pic of Michelle and Drew Scott fighting over a trophy about women in leadership. What are the chances of a rematch with a different trophy? 🙂

I also had thought about Haley R., (yes, she’s friends with Mark and Derek), but she’s about to embark on a pretty intensive tour, which includes Monday dates.

Yes, Casanova, all of the items you mentioned played into my guess of Michelle. There’s also the fact that her long time coach, Frank Carroll, later coached Evan Lysacek, and Mark helped Evan out with some choreography for a skating program a number of years ago. She’s good friends with Kristi, and also Maia and Alex Shibutani, a brother/sister ice dancing team who have worked a lot with Corky Ballas and, as I just found out recently, Derek.

The thing with Michelle, though, is Derek tweeted a while back that his friend is doing the show and some people are assuming she’ll be Marks partner, myself included. Ashley Roberts is at Mark’s house tonight watching the big fight so now there’s some buzz about it being her. They’ve been friends forever, though, so I don’t think it’s necessarily means anything other than we have another name to throw out there.

Derek didn’t tweet it, Rose1, he said it in an interview with Access Hollywood or ET – can’t remember which. It does make sense that his friend would be the one dancing with Mark since they have so many friends in common. But he has a lot of friends that Mark might not know from various things he’s done in the last could years as well.

Pretty sure that was Emma/Sasha’s house where they were watching the fight. Derek/Hayley, Sharna, Emma/Sasha, Mark/BC, Julz and Brooks Laich were all there, in addition to Ashley and others. I was surprised to see Sharna with that crew, but glad at the same time.

So i’ve been having my own set of guesses over the past couple of days of who Mark’s partner could be this season. Heidi, you’re probably gonna think I’m insane after I name these guesses but these are the only ones that suddenly came to my mind as of yesterday.

One of them I may have mentioned 2 days ago. I just hope it’s someone super good. I’m just excited that he’s back this season and also excited that we are I think a week away from finding out who Mark’s dancing with.

Both Ashley Benson and Ashley Roberts list dancer in their bios. With Ashley Roberts listed as a dancer and choreographer. I would hate for Mark to come back and be paired with the “ringer” of the season. I want Mark to have a great season without any backlash right out of the gate.

I googled “Mark Ballas dream partner” to see what names he may have mentioned in the past in interviews.

Other than Jennifer Aniston, he’s also mentioned Shakira and Ellie Goulding…

Sandy, I agree…part of me would rather Mark have someone with a big fanbase or personality than a “ringer.” Getting a “ringer” seems almost a disadvantage these days, despite it potentially bringing good dancing.

I think, these days, most of the backlash comes if your name is Derek or if you’ve never had anyone BUT a ringer. Mark has clearly paid his dues and it’s been so long since he’s won that he’s due. If not him, then Lindsay or Sharna.

I just so thrilled to have Mark Ballas back and seemingly inspired that I don’t care what whiners say! He has a unique style and I’ve missed seeing new MB specials, even ideas that don’t quite work out…….. Just the other day, a gif of Mark the Milkman (Jive with Paula Deen) crossed my Tumblr dash. I’ve lost count of the number of times that I’ve watched that! I still can’t get over how they got on and the resulting performance.